Monday, February 27, 2012

"An exclusive eye to eye with the Devil... RITUAL TEMPLE speaks in tongue"

RITUAL TEMPLE is a very young band, and once more you can go figure, but yeah that's the plain truth... The band originates from BRITANNY, just like HUATA and STANGALA; they must have something special in the wine they give to babies over there! ha!
Anyway, if you like it raw, solid and ballsy as fuck, while crawling in the sludge of occultism. I bet RITUAL TEMPLE is shaped for your damaged ears of doom...Enjoy the words of singer Fabius Paulus and their twisted clamor!

Hi Fabien, nice to feature another french band in the realms of TEMPLE OF PERDITION. Lately it seems that our national scene is very active when it comes to doom, stoner and sludge. Do you feel a good connection with other french acts when it comes to RITUAL TEMPLE. Even if the band is pretty young (founded in 2010), you're no newcomers to the scene. In what bands are/were all of you involved prior to RITUAL TEMPLE. What is your aim with that classic doom outfit?
Hi Nathaniel. That's our pleasure to get an opportunity of talking about RIUAL TEMPLE in such a entity as TEMPLE OF PERDITION mate. We have quite good connections here in Rennes with some other French acts because we mainly get involved in different projects. But as for Doom, Stoner and Sludge, I don't have much to tell you about. There are promoters here in our city that is called BLOOD RITES (officiates in Paris as well) and organize Doom/ Stoner shows, I guess there is a good response regarding what they do and that's great in my opinion. We are mostly in touch with HUATA... I am explaining why... Reido, our guitar player is friend with Ronan their singer and also used to play in a band a few years ago with some HUATA members. I also have been involved in projects with Alexis, their drummer. Indeed, I used to have a tape label with him back then, the thing was called NEKROBLOOD RECORDS and we decided to stop it around 6 months ago now, and finally Max Abomination and I are also playing in a Speed Thrash Metal band called GULAG with Alexis as well on drums. So, that's pretty much it as far as our connections in the Doom/ Stoner scene within France are concerned. We know the guys from CHILDREN OF DOOM a bit, they are crazy guys and play awesome music, but beside that, we are not very much in touch with other bands! We know the BOTTLE DOOM LAZY BAND but never got in touch with them unfortunately though. We are good touch with the MANZER crew and also NECROBLOOD. So, as I said, Reido (guitars) had old bands that were Doom influenced. I used to sing in a band called THERAPHIM (Black/ Death Metal) and recorded only one tape actually. There, also played Infernal Ritualist (our drummer) and Max Abomination, who is also still active in PERVERSIFIER, NUCLEAR ABOMINATION and GULAG.
Our aim is to bring Death and perform the darkest form of traditional Doom. We play the music we want and like, but need to keep this ritualistic and occult themes that are very important to us.

You're also working with a brand new label, handled by Thomas (who used to have a little distro called FROST AND FIRE some years ago). What did interest you in working with him in the first place? It looks like his promotionnal work was pretty good, as you start to create a little buzz around your music... I mean you were aired on shows like THE SOGGY BOG and got some cool review from Germany. Not too bad for a beginning...
Yes, Thomas will release our demo Tape on his brand new label MAGISTER DIXIT! That's a great opportunity for us, and we can't thank him enough for trusting. Once again, things are not so easy or complicated. Still opportunities and contacts worked for us here. We are not close with the Parisian Metal scene at all, but we know the dudes in NECROBLOOD and they are friends of ours, to Reido and I, so by knowing then, I met Thomas (even if I saw him many times in the past, as I was a friend of Yves from Banged or be Banged and so he was) and so kept in touch, but Reido knows him better and probably for a longer time. I learned that he moved to Belgium where he is a relative to my old friend Jerry from Detest Records... Enough talked about me though. So, Thomas is a real Doom fan and so is Reido, so one day, Reido said that he had started a band here in Rennes and Thomas was curious about that. Then, we did record some tunes and Thomas got enthusiastic about what we did, which is great. He has killer taste in music and proposed to release our first demo tape quite immediately and decided to start the label with our demo tape. He has balls doing it! We are nobody, I am not sure that there is any buzz around us (I hope not, and also I wish people will not consider us as a "buzz" band, we don't mean it, just do what we like, no more). I mean, this may happen (or not) when the tape will be out, you know, at the moment, we are pretty ignored I would say, and we don't give a shit. Just hope there won't be a big deal around RITUAL TEMPLE (if you see what I mean on a specific forum where wanking is a full-time job). Actually, I think the promotion has not really started and so we are quite surprised that already a Greek blog, a US radio show and a German blog (all held by people we don't know) get interested into what we do. We did not expect it at all because as mentioned earlier, the label already did not start promotion I guess, Thomas is waiting for the tape to be out...

Indeed RITUAL TEMPLE is rooted in the most traditionnal ways of playing doom metal, and also wraps itself in a drape of occultism. Good, but what makes you stand out from the mass/trend of late then? It's no secret that since THE DEVIL'S BLOOD calibrated occult rock for metalheads took the scene by storm, bands in your vein start to pop up like mushrooms... Your comments on that please.
Yes, RITUAL TEMPLE is wrapped into Occultism. Reido and I got very much interested and involved into it. This was an important thing for us. He is into Doom to the bones and gets fascinated by it all, so did I. This was the main direction we wanted to go to when we both started the band, I mean except for music, this direction was natural and obvious for us.
Yes, there probably is a trend around it at the moment, but I personally don't care about it. To me, the two first THE DEVIL'S BLOOD albums are good, but as you say, that is Occult Rock for Metal fans. We, in RITUAL TEMPLE are Hard rockers fan of Metal music, Max Abomination and Infernal Ritualist are big Thrash, Black/ Thrash Metal fans, I enjoy many Metal bands and Reido is at the same time a big Doom and Extreme Metal fan (Doom is Metal too, of course, but to me not as extreme as what we currently listen to). Yeah, there might be more bands in the vein we are evolving at the moment, but we are not interested into it, we do what we do, the way we intend to and what people may think about us or our imagery remains insignificant, we play our music for us firstly and then, if some people enjoy it too, that's ok. We do it all for ourselves and we have no other band in mind, we are RITUAL TEMPLE (our name says it all) and we need no comparison to any other band regarding our aesthetics, we are not falses...

The sound of the demo is raw, dirty, yet doesn't lack a single second of groove or dynamic! Well done dudes! I understood that Kev from PERVERSIFIER was responsible for the recording and mix/mastering of the whole thing. Why did you want to work with him, and what do you think you can improve on your next recordings?
Thanks for the words Nathaniel, it means a lot to us, really. This is exactly how we wanted the tape to sound like. Not too clean, not too modern, with some 70's elements. Reido and I agreed with the other members of what we wanted for this tape. We talked to Kev and as he is a great musician and listens to some Doom and 70's rock bands, he knew what we meant, and so that was very easy. That was so obvious for us to work with him. He is in Brittany (Bretagne) first, and so do we, that was a very easy choice to make. Also, Max Abomination plays with him in PERVERSIFIER, and he has turned to a very good friend of ours, it is always lots of good moments we have together. And finally, he has some sort of a studio in his basement, so it was so easy to make it this way and we are totally satisfied of the final result and his awesome job on the tape. We recommend him to any band that wishes to have a quality engineer and a good moment recording their piece of dedicated Metal.

The voice is also pretty personal on this demo. Deep, and melodic, without sounding cheesy at all. Sometimes I get reminded of Luce from HOODED PRIEST when I listen to your voice. Were you singing before joining RITUAL TEMPLE? What are your influences when it comes to singing?
I tried my best finding a way of making good vocals. To tell the truth, I am not very influenced by someone particularly. I was more influenced by liquid substances when I recorded my vocals actually. Thanks for saying this about HOODED PRIEST, they are a good band, but they did not influence me at all, neither by MINAUTORI as far as I am concerned. I have been singing in THERAPHIM prior to RITUAL TEMPLE, but that is a totally different kind of vocals (more Death Metal inspired), I invite you to throw an ear about it.


 It looks like the future of the band is pretty uncertain, as you're supposed to move abroad for your job, and if I am not mistaken, some other members of RITUAL TEMPLE shall not be available for a couple of months either. It must feel strange to release a demo and not to be able to support it with some gigs or simply to keep on working on new tracks altogether. But maybe I am wrong, and thanks to the modern days technology you'll be able to maintain a regular working schedule for the band...
You are right Nathaniel! The future of RITUAL TEMPLE is unfortunately quite uncertain. Indeed, I am moving to Canada for a maximum of 6 months and then, I will come back to Europe and will probably relocate in the East of France or Germany. Infernal Ritualist is going to Ireland himself at the same time that I will move, and I don't really know if he will be coming back (as I have been told that people who move to Ireland rarely come back to their home country). Finally, Reido will head to Paris because circumstances in his private life have changed and he needs to breath another air. We are very proud of what we have done and what will be on the tape. We would prefer keeping the band active but it is impossible to make for easy reasons I previously mentioned. Technology can make it more easily but we stay undetermined as for the status of the band and our demo might be the only release by the band, really to bad, but that's the way it is so far. Concerts were planned and cancelled for different reasons, we would have liked to play, but here again, so it is.

I remember that we were talking about the stereotypical metalheads of our sinister today. Don't you sometimes feel trapped between tradition and innovation? I mean, metal and rock are now old and established enough for everybody to pick up things of their liking. But nowadays, I feel a rather excessive conservatism that suffocates the scene, and on another hand there are plenty of people thinking they break some boundaries, whereas they just drown their creativity behind the facilities of technology. Where do you stand?
Hum, I feel trapped between the two you mention, but I really prefer dying strangled by Tradition than Innovation, that is for sure. There are so many things that I don't understand anymore regarding codes, rules, attitudes. I am not a nostalgic at all, I just feel so obsolete and distant to it right now. You are right, I am not sure that some people act like they do by listening to this or that for the good reasons, I mean this is not so cool to "like everything the consortium said to like". It is not so cool to listen to that band because they are the precursors of this or that and say: "Look, I know it as well, oh yeah". People should just enjoy what they want, no one cares if that's an old band or not, how much recognition they get... Something has changed, but I don't think that music itself changed, only our society and individuals have and here is the result in the so called Metal ground... Same for musicians who prefer to "sound like" than creating decent things. Yeah, there are many people who think they break the law and boundaries but are more stuck in a fucking straitjacket. I just can't understand this. Good luck for being more Evil than Evil Ladies and Gentlemen.

Alright, that's it for the moment, I just wanted to shade some light upon your unholy tunes of doom. I await eagerly for some more dark chants from your side. Feel free to shamefully promote yourself now...
Thanks Nathaniel for giving us a chance to talk about RITUAL TEMPLE a bit. That's very much appreciated. We'll try to give birth to a few more tracks, but it looks like it will be hard. Well, support our label MAGISTER DIXIT and if anyone has any inquiry regarding our music: ritual.temple@gmail.com
MORS OMNIA VINCIT (Death will always prevail)
We know who are the respectable people, others can fuck Off! All hails Temple of Perdition!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ritual-Temple/382520858428506

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